I have a thin-wall Dunlop slide that looks to have been coated in some sort of lacquer (sounds odd, I know!!!). After playing it for some few months, the lacquer has blistered off the slide, around the middle of its length. I have tried cleaning the rest of the lacquer with both solvents and Brasso, with no success.

Has anybody else had this problem with Dunlop slides, and have you found a solution???

I was thinking of using a very fine gauge steel wool, but I'm not sure what the remaining surface would feel like, and whether I could still play it...

You're talking about a brass slide? Various sorts of lacquer have often been applied to brass to keep it from tarnishing. Not a great idea on a slide, with the constant friction.

I'd be afraid the steel wool would leave the surface rougher than I like.

What solvents have you tried? Acetone will dissolve most organic materials that were deposited from a solution. If it's some sort of material like an epoxy that polymerized in place, it can't dissolve. It has to be broken down or mechanically abraded away. Might try soaking it in Liquid Plumber or such for a while. Sodium hydroxide shouldn't hurt your brass. If you use an acid solution, you'll end up with a copper-looking slide, as acids dissolve all of the zinc out of the surface layer of the brass.

I've used metalsand sandpaper to grind toolmarks out of my brass slide and then steel wool to polish it. I think I used some fine emory paper somewhere in the process. You can get it pretty smooth. Probably not worth the effort though, just go buy a brass slide that doesn't have coating.